Thoughts, news, tips on Oracle BPM and BPA Suite

Wednesday Jul 30, 2014

Two weeks ago I blogged about the new features and improvements to process documentation in Oracle BPM 12.1.3. A sample is now available on java.net for download. This sample includes:

A lab document explaining how to use the import feature in Oracle BPM Composer and Studio to convert Visio, XPDL, BPMN 2.0, Oracle Workflow, and Tutor documents into BPM processes. A sample Visio file is included in the download so you can see how the feature works.

The same lab document leads you through adding process documentation via the business properties.

You are also guided through using the narrative view to edit your sample process.

Then the lab prompts you to create process reports to bring all of your process documentation together in one HTML or PDF document.

The sample also includes a lab solution so you can import the project with all of the process documentation already added.

Wednesday Jul 16, 2014

When customers extend their project objectives from beyond
traditional departmental boundaries to the enterprise as a whole, the BPM
strategy is not driven by only a few processes but by hundreds of processes,
some mission-critical to the overall value stream, others in a supporting role.
There is a need to capture a macro, or big picture view and provide a way to
categorize, analyze, and document these vast collection of processes, and
understand their mutual dependencies, strategic importance and business
alignment. In Oracle BPM 12c, we are excited to introduce light-weight Business
Architecture capabilities within Process Composer that help to capture this
macro view in a standard way and provides a formal link between business goals
and actual BPM Projects that an organization undertakes. It allows you to
create a blueprint of your enterprise that provides all stakeholders an
understanding of how the enterprise goals and objectives are in alignment with
the projects themselves.

One of the prime use cases for the broader level of modeling
is Process Decomposition which is support to break down ("decompose")
process complexity into manageable parts and is depicted by a hierarchy.The Enterprise
Process Map is the entry point for process decomposition. This level
defines the top level business functions or process areas of the enterprise.
Each top level business further drills down into a hierarchy of Value Chains,
and ultimately link to operational business process flows in BPMN. Another way
Business Architects can represent the relationship between these Business
Architecture artifacts is via a Strategy
Model which is used for creating, editing, and linking the assets. It
provides a mind map like editing view. Business analyst captures business
intent and strategic alignment of processes via a Strategy Model.

The actionable angle in Business Architecture has been
captured through rollup KPIs, which help measure the organization’s success
metrics. KPIs can roll up from the BPM execution platform i.e. from business
processes all the way up to Value Chains. The fact whether the KPIs are being
met or not is exposed in a Process Criticality KPI report which will show how
different process areas are performing and aids with identifying process
candidates that can produce the maximum ROI through process optimization.

You can always refer to the sample posted here
to get more details on the Business Architecture capabilities in 12.1.3. Have
fun!

Monday Jul 14, 2014

The new release of Solution (aka: Process) Accelerators is now
available on OTN. This new release has
been focused on improving existing accelerators with most customer demand while
adding a new accelerator to the catalog which showcases Adaptive Case
Management (ACM): Complaints Management.

Complaints management has become a strategic focus area in
many industries where customer service is the top priority. It has impacts on
customer satisfaction and retention, and may involve compliance penalties.
However, processes and solutions that support employees dealing with complaints
are ad-hoc, custom, and fraught with manual steps and paper.

The Complaints Management Accelerator, built using the best
BPM, ACM, and Content platform available today, enables effective and efficient
customer complaints resolution. Using ACM we have organized the complaints
settlement process across four phases: Filing, Review, Investigation, and
Resolution, while enabling churn likelihood control via R-generated indexes. The
Complaints Management accelerator thus enables knowledge workers to choose the
best actions leading to efficient complaint resolution, also taking into
account unscheduled events such as the receipt of a new document from the
customer.

Customers can quickly input their products, complaints
types, and other data specific to them using out-of-the-box Administrator UIs,
and refine the resolution processes and cases configured in the Accelerator
according to their requirements, exploiting ACM’s model to flexibly fit their
needs and exceed customer expectations.

Other accelerators have also been improved,
including:

• Employee Onboarding has been enhanced to
provide WebCenter based imaging to allow compliance documents (I-9, W-4) to be
scanned and associated with the onboarding instance for the new hire

• eForms Management, now with the option to
remotely deploy a Citizen eForm for submission

• Internal Service Requests, now with examples
of department-specific approval tasks

• Finally, Approval Management for Microsoft
Excel® (AME), which generalizes the model of performing a complete BPM-driven approval
cycle from within Excel, first introduced with the Financial Reports Approval
accelerator.

This release continues to include out-of-the-box
integration scenarios with Oracle Applications Products, including Siebel,
PeopleSoft, and the E-Business Suite.